Did Jenn Soto turn a blind eye? Madeline Soto’s mom boyfriend Stephan Sterns sexually abused 13 year old daughter, Madeline Soto for years, Florida authorities reveal.
Who knew it was this bad… did Jenn Soto? Authorities have disclosed the 13 year old Kissimmee, Florida girl, Madeline Soto who was allegedly murdered at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend had been sexually abused by the man ongoing since 2022.
Stephan Sterns, 37, the boyfriend of the 13-year-old’s mom, allegedly began abusing Madeline in August 2022, when she was only 11, according to an arrest affidavit filed in Osceola County, WESH reported.
Leading up to the boyfriend’s arrest, Sterns had been arrested on unrelated charges of sexual battery and possession of child sexual abuse after a search of his phone revealed ‘disturbing images.’
Disturbing images and videos recovered
The material recovered from the phone revealed private parts of a young girl and the suspect engaged in sexual acts with her, according to the Kissimmee Police Department document.
The young girl is now believed to be Madeline Soto, with her mom’s boyfriend arrested the day of discovery of the missing girl’s body, just two days after Sterns was booked on sex crimes.
Metadata timestamps dated the disturbing images and videos to August 2022, according to the affidavit, which redacted the victim’s identity but left a birthdate that matches Madeline’s, Fox 35 Orlando reported.
Kissimmee Police Chief Betty Holland had previously declined to confirm whether Madeline was the alleged victim of the sexual offenses, but the newly released affidavit cites ‘the missing juvenile.’
Another alleged incident took place on another unspecified date when Madeline was 12, according to the Orlando Sentinel, which also cited the redacted document.
Sexual predator claims accidentally resetting factory settings of cellphone
Detectives were able to pinpoint the room where many of the alleged incidents took place inside the apartment where Madeline lived with Sterns and her mom, Jenn Soto, in Venetian Bay Villages in Kissimmee.
Madeline, who turned 13 on Feb. 22, was found dead in a wooded area in Osceola County on Friday after being reported missing four days earlier.
Sterns, who was named the ‘prime suspect,’ was the last person to see her alive after she never showed up to school.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina previously told reporters prior to Madeline’s body being found that she was likely already dead the day she was reported missing and her body hidden in woods.
‘We believe she was already dead at the time and that Stephan Sterns moved her body in the early morning hours on that day,’ Mina said. ‘We have video evidence that shows Stephan Sterns discarding items in a dumpster in that apartment complex in Kissimmee at 7:35 a.m.’
Video captured him driving his silver 2010 Lincoln MK back to the apartment complex with the body still in the vehicle after throwing out items in a dumpster, cops said.
He never dropped the girl off at school like he had previously told investigators, officials said.
Sterns reportedly told police at first that he ‘accidentally’ performed a factory reset on his phone the day Madeline was reported missing.
How could Jenn Soto not have known?
He had told investigators that he dropped her off in front of a preschool at 8:40 a.m., blocks from her middle school, where classes start at 9:30 a.m.
Madeline’s mom went to pick up her daughter from school about 4:30 p.m. and was told she never showed up, police said.
Sterns, who is being held in the Osceola County Jail without bond, has not been charged in connection to Madeline’s death.
Her mother has not been identified as a suspect in her disappearance or death.
Nevertheless questions as to Jenn Soto’s potential complicity continue to fill social media, with many wondering how could the mother not know her live in boyfriend was a sexual predator, or if she just turned a blind eye, or allowed it to happen or at least suspected her boyfriend’s relationship with her pre-teen daughter was too intimate and illicit. Or did Jenn Soto simply miss all the signs of abuse of her daughter’s ongoing abuse at the hands of a sexual predator…?
And then there were these comments on the web that caught this author’s attention. See what you think?
‘Another love starved ‘mother’ sacrificing their daughter to be with the worthless.’
‘You know that sick mom is covering this all up.’
‘She went to her job every day so she had access to “safe” time.’
‘I only wonder whether her mom was too affraid to do anything.’
